When Canberra mother Melissa Harrison first fell ill she put it down to being pregnant with her twin girls.

She was constantly vomiting and fatigued throughout her pregnancy. But after her daughters Kenley and Ivy were born in 2014, instead of getting better, she found herself feeling sicker and sicker.

The symptoms were odd; there was hair loss, chronic fatigue, headaches, rashes and trouble breathing.

Ms Harrison’s son Travis, who is now eight years old, also seemed to be constantly sick with reoccurring sinus infections, chest infections, asthma and nose bleeds.

But it wasn’t until Ms Harrison, who is now 28, cleaned up a patch of mould in her public housing home in Gilmore nine months ago - and ended up developing a lung infection - that she finally realised what was making them so ill.

“I had cleaned this black mould off the windows and a couple of days later I began wheezing and I had a really sore throat,” Ms Harrison told nine.com.au.

“I was diagnosed with a chest infection that lingered into pneumonia.”

Thinking back, Ms Harrison remembered there were other times that she had gotten sick after cleaning up the mould that had constantly been growing back in the house.

“The mould is everywhere. It’s on every window sill, all through the wood. It’s on the walls and where paint is peeling around vents. It’s also been found in the lino in the kitchen. There is white furry stuff that has come out,” she said.

“I realised this was the third time I had done a massive clean and I ended up crook after every clean,” she said.

Then there were the few occasions when Ms Harrison wasn’t living at home and had started to feel better.

“I would get really unwell and then I would end up going to my mum’s. I would be there for a while and recover and then I would come home and it would start all over again,” she said.

Ms Harrison and her ex-partner Dane Muench with their children Kenley, Travis and Ivy. (Photo: Melissa Harrison) (Supplied)

Ms Harrison went to see a respiratory specialist and tests showed she was severely allergic to aspergillus, a common type of mould.

Wheezing and struggling to breathe, Ms Harrison said she had been treated by Canberra Hospital’s emergency department more than 160 times over the past four years.

“I’ve had to call an ambulance because I can’t breathe,” she said.

Ms Harrison said she had raised the mould issue with the Department of Housing during her first home inspection as far back as 2014, and at least 30 times over the past nine months after she had become really concerned about its effects.

“They would just keep saying it’s normal and to clean it off,” she said.

Ms Harrison said she had experienced a number of strange symptoms relating to her mould allergy, including hair loss. (Photo: Melissa Harrison) (Supplied)

Ms Harrison said her constant fatigue, asthma and ill health had taken a huge toll on her mental health over the past few years.

“There have been times that I thought I was just going to die. Sometimes I couldn’t get any answers or any help. It made me feel like I was going insane,” she said.

“I don’t smoke, I don’t drink. I don’t even go out anymore because I can’t. I have chronic fatigue. Sometimes I will go to bed at 8pm one night and I won’t wake up until 3pm the next afternoon.

“I have got OCD, anxiety and depression. I told my psychologist that if this doesn’t get fixed I feel like I could end my life because I can’t do this anymore. And that’s not like me to say something like that because of my kids. But I feel useless to them, what good am I when I feel this sick?”

In multiple letters to the Department of Housing, seen by nine.com.au, Ms Harrison’s specialist and GP both attributed her lung infection and chronic asthma to the mould in her home and urged the department to relocate her.

Last month, Ms Harrison’s psychologist also wrote to the department, urging her case workers to relocate the mother and her family as soon as possible given her fragile physical and mental health.

Ms Harrison said had fallen ill several times after trying to clean up the mould. (Photo: Melissa Harrison) (Supplied)

In a statement by Housing ACT, the department denied knowing about the mould in Ms Harrison’s home until March this year.

Housing ACT said it had carried out two building inspections of the building since May, which found “there are no apparent structural issues relating to the mould”.

“Housing ACT have offered on three occasions to clean the property including the mould areas, furnishings and carpets to support Ms Harrison and advise of ongoing related management of mould. Ms Harrison has refused this level of intervention,” the statement said.

Last week, the Department of Housing agreed to put Ms Harrison up in a hotel for two weeks while the house is tested for mould for a third time.

Ms Harrison was also placed on a “hjgh needs list” for transfer – the second highest level of priority.

But, according to the Department of Community Affairs’ latest figures, the average wait time for a high needs relocation is 753 days.

Ms Harrison said she feared she would be moved back into her home again when her hotel stay ended at the end of this week. She was also worried that if the cause of the mould wasn’t investigated, it would simply grow back again, which was why she had refused to have it cleaned.

“I don’t know what is going to happen.

“My doctors have all recommended that they move me from the property but I think they are still trying to find a way around this.

“It sounds like they are just going to try and clean it and put me back in - but I can’t keep living like this.”

Ms Harrison’s story comes after the Federal Government last month announced a national inquiry into biotoxin-related illnesses, of which mould is the most common.

The inquiry has been spearheaded by NSW Liberal MP Lucy Wicks who herself fell dangerously ill after being exposed to mould in her water-damaged home on the NSW Central Coast.

The cut-off date for submissions to the inquiry, which is expected to be similar to the senate’s 2016 investigation into Lyme Disease, is tomorrow.